A Belated Victory on Fuel Efficiency

Remember when California tried to set tighter limits on vehicles’ CO2 emissions than what the federal government required? (They petitioned for a waiver to set their own pollution standards, which they’re allowed to do under the Clean Air Act if they get federal permission.)

The Bush administration EPA kept insisting that the Clean Air Act didn’t allow for regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant – until the Supreme Court told them that, yes, the Clean Air Act does authorize EPA to regulate these climate-damaging emissions. Then EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson went ahead and denied California’s petition, anyway, claiming that a new energy bill would be sufficient. It was widely expected that the denial wouldn’t withstand a legal challenge, but it thwarted action for a while longer.

Now, four months into the Obama Administration, California’s proposed emissions standards won’t just be allowed for that state – they’ll apply to the whole country. Kate Sheppard at Gristmill explains:

President Obama is expected to unveil new fuel-economy standards for automobiles on Tuesday—the first major step by his administration to limit planet-warming greenhouse gases.

The new standards will reportedly raise fleet-wide standards for cars to 42 miles per gallon by 2016, up from 27.5 mpg now. For light trucks, the required fleet average will rise to about 26.2 mpg by 2016, up from about 24 mpg now. Ultimately, this will mean a 30 percent reduction in global-warming emissions from new vehicles by 2016, with improvements beginning in the 2011 model year.

The move will push the entire country to meet the aggressive standards proposed by the state of California. California and 13 other states had requested a waiver from the U.S. EPA that would allow them to set tougher auto-emissions standards than the federal government by requiring cars to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide—and the only viable way to cut CO2 emissions is to require cars to get better gas mileage. The Bush administration denied California’s request last year, but Obama directed the EPA to reconsider the petition almost immediately after he took office.

The Obama administration will now officially grant California’s request for a waiver, and at the same time will adopt California’s standard for the whole country. This means fuel-economy and emissions standards will be combined into one straightforward set of rules.

I can’t help thinking that our current climate picture might look slightly less dire right now if California had been granted its waiver three years ago. But at least we’re finally taking a belated step in the right direction.